After
many complaints over a number of years over the
crime ridden state of Lancashire it was decided
in 1839 that a combined county police force was
required to police the county. During the 1860s,
the force lost its first officer, PC Jump, who
died after being shot by a group of men that he
and a colleague were searching. By the end of the
century the force had developed a detective
department who were allowed to wear plain
clothes.

The
Radio Branch or Wireless Workshops pioneered many
techniques in the use of radio by the police. In
1925 they had radio communications between
Constabulary headquarters in Preston and six
divisional headquarters. A year later a van was
equipped with a transmitter. Tests were done with
radio communication to cars in the 1930s. In 1939
four fixed stations provided coverage over much
of the county. At the start of WWII divisional
headquarters were equipped with
transmitter-receivers as a back-up to the
telephone system. This was used in 1941 when the
telephone system in Liverpool was put out of
action by bombing, Lancashire Constabulary's
radio system was sole means of communications
with the city for a time. After the war they were
involved in the development and move to VHF FM by
the UK police.

In
1948 the force's dog section was established with
many differing breeds being used but by the 1950s
it was established that the German Shepherd was
the most suitable.

In
1961 a personal radio scheme was installed in
Chorley with Motorola VHF personal radios
imported from the USA after a demonstration in
Stretford in 1959. In 1965, the force had an
establishment of 3,784 officers and an actual
strength of 3,454, making it the second largest
police force (after the Metropolitan Police) and
the largest county force in Great Britain.

The
force then went through major changes in the
1970s when the force was reduced to cover the new
re-bordered Lancashire with the other areas
coming under the jurisdiction of Greater
Manchester Police and Merseyside Police.

Ford Anglia Saloons
as used by the Lancashire Constabulary

Lancashire
Constabulary is generally credited with being the
first police force to use panda cars in 1965.
This photograph shows a delivery of Ford Anglias
to the force's Hutton headquarters which were
bound for Bolton in 1966. They were possibly the
first Panda cars many Bolton people saw.

Lancashire
Constabulary was a big user of the Anglia. Once
it had been decided to switch officers to mobile
patrol, Lancashire Constabulary bought 175 Ford
Anglias, made at Halewood on Merseyside, in
one go. Then acting Chief Constable Bill Palfrey
staged a media event at County Police
headquarters at Hutton on May Day, 1967, by
having them arranged in '999' formation.

The police
vehicles were the 'basic' Ford Anglias,
lacking the full-width chrome-plated radiator
grille of the deluxe model. The Ford
Anglias were originally dubbed A-Cars, but
became known as Pandas because of the white
stripe on their bodywork which contrasted with
their main lagoon blue colour.

Their
introduction, Palfrey said, would
save the force some 400 men. At the time
Lancashire Constabulary was some 500 officers
under-strength anyway, and it was this strain on
manpower that was a big influence in the
departure from old-style policing.

In January 1970,
at the opening of a new control centre at Hutton
that was capable of supervising 1,000 mobile
units at any one time, Palfrey said "People
who argue for a return to foot patrols are living
in the past, in a bygone age. A lot is talked
about policemen riding around in cars. Should the
criminal cease to use high-powered cars, then we
could return to foot patrol."